HOME!!!!!!!!!

Here she is!

Web connectivity has been a struggle. Will get better next week, in the meantime bear with me. We're wrapping up everything. But here is our new home!!!




We're getting things in and set up. Storage is tight, especially with trying to fit in the stuff for the business. But it's all about the journey. Wheee!

Here she comes!

She arrives tonight!! Pics of her tomorrow. Name suggestions welcome. I'm liking magic bus. :)

Wifi

Well, having trouble with connecting as often as I want to. I'm hunting up a good antenna. Tried the hawking HWL2 and just think that for that kind of money it should perform better. Taking it back today and going to try the airlink adapter instead. Hopefully that will perfomr better. The hawking is line of sight which makes things difficult.

In other news the RV is on her way to us! She should be here saturday or sunday. Will definitely throw up lots of pics. Living in an empty house since we've cleaned out has been no fun. It's amazing how people can still make a mess when they have no actual stuff to do it with! Just amazing! lol

Insurance

Working on the insurance today. Can I just say this is EXPENSIVE!!! I guess I thought it would be lower than it is turning out to be. If you do this, be prepared for around 1,000-1,500 per year. Yikes.

I'm a Dork

I comepletely forgot to post for several days. I'll work on that.

So here's what's up... the RV should be here in just a couple of days! Saturday to be precise. Pictures will be put up, I promise.

So the second show went alright. LEarned a major lesson... places with carnivals leave no spending money left for them to spend on the vendors. By the time they buy rides and junk food for the entire family, they're broke! So I think I'm booked to two more with carnivals, but after that I'm going to skip them. They are okay for people who have five dollar items, ie face painting and plastic imported toys but not for us artsy folks.

Told my ex that I'm leaving. He put on a sad face... like I didn't know that internally he was jumping for joy.

I'm going to miss my favorite local cafe. If you're ever in southern Idaho make sure you drop by the Library coffee house. Awesome coffee, terrific staff, and the exact environment that a coffee shop should have. Five stars, more like six really... please drop in on these wonderful people, I promise you won't be sorry.

Okay, pics, I promised pics! Here is my middle girl, post face painting, at the cherry festival:



And one more. I saw this there at the show, and it struck me that these poor pooches were stuck in this cage all day! Wouldn't it be better to just walk them? Or leave them at home where they could at least be free? It bugged me, I don't know why. I felt so sorry for the TWO dogs she had trapped in there... just because she wanted to bring them out as some kind of status symbol. I wanted to pull a "free willy" ! haha

Acceptance

So despite the fact that my last show was desperately important I did not even make back expenses. Why? Well because the promoters placed us vendors several blocks from the action!

40,000 attendance at the event and maybe 2,000 walked down the vendors aisle. They stuck us block, yes, several blocks away form the action, on a dirt and rock lot! Needless to say it was not at all like it was represented to us to be, and none of the vendors made their fees back and all of us were seriously ticked.

According to one of the two returning vendors, it is like that every year and they never have returning vendors for that reason. So now I add the questions "What percentage of your booths are returning vendors?" to my Q&A.

I'm going to see what I can do about it before we leave town. Would like to get my money back, they owe us that. But who knows. On top of it all when I politely tried to talk to the president of the chamber about it she screamed at me, asked me why she should care, and told me that she provided us with 40,000 people and if we all FAILED to sell to them, that was our problem, not hers.

It was a nightmare. Just a total nightmare.

So.... trying to just let it go. I have a show starting on wednesday, setup is tomorrow. I like that hope of a new show. The anticipation is fun.

I'm making some booth modifications too.

I think I'll start adding pictures to the blog once we get through this show. In the meantime, if you have advice on confronting a board of directors, I'd be much obliged!

Guests?

My oldest sister called me today and said that she and her daughter needed a place to stay for a short time. Of ocurse in ordinary circumstances I wouldn't hesitate... but I had not been able to get ahold of her (I have two sisters) to tell her what we were doing.

So I told her I'm so sorry, but we are about to move into a 31 ft motorhome. It's hard to tell people you have no space for them. It was really painful to do that. It brings up the question as to how I will handle guests on the road. Both of the temp variety like dinner guests, and of the longer term like a friend flying in to visit for a week.

I'm wondering if I should get a small tent and extra sleeping bag just for that. I think I'll add it to the "someday soon" list. Denying hospitality is not in my nature.

Show Time

I have two shows now to face (art/festivals shows). Without them, I will not have enough money for things like the RV insurance down payment, passport america, etc.

Remember I'm 34, I'm not retiring here, I have to work to make it all come together... well it also so happens that I have to work a couple of jobs! I also run a daycare, so we do have kids all week too.

The dealership is starting my first payment in June. Some people told me they gave you a month or two at the start before it began. Not so lucky with me. First payment due on pickup! So since I still have rent this month, the final bills on everything I'm turning off, and the insurance down payment (30% of the total), I'm really strapped.

So the show, though a lot of work, is incredibly important!

Tired, but getting excited... until I start to think about how I'm going to pull it all off... then I panic.

Double Check!

Phone: Turn off date 6/18
Electricity: Disconnect 6/30
Gas: Disconnect 6/05
DSL: 6/18

Second cell line for emergencies, ordered.

Handling the change of plans on the day we get the RV, gentle and without objection. (See how I'm improving already??)

DMV change of address, done.
Voters reg change of address, done.
Cancel Y membership, done.
Change address to auto insurance, done.
New national bank account rather than the local one I had ben using, done.
Lose debit card have to order new one because I'm a dork, done!

Check

Yard sale is accomplished. I had intended to do it on friday saturday since I discovered by accident that you make more that way, but I just couldn't get it all done with this flu going on. So it was the old standard of saturday and sunday. I didn't make as much as I think I could have, but I did okay, and every little bit helps.

I think my favorite is seeing some old furniture pieces that had been in my family a long time go to people who not only needed them but were really glad to have them. I love that!

So now I am freecycling what's left. If you don't freecycle, you should try it: Freecycle

Just choose a local list and get started. Sometimes it can be a lot of email but I've gotten some wonderful things from there and had the opportunity to see some of my things fine great new homes when they were really needed by others. Pay it forward.

Gotta get my yard all green and pretty too or the landlord will be grumpy.

Today I got us reservations in a wonderful place for september, so watch for that, it's going to be amazing!

Keep on taking step after step. When I stop and look at the big picture I get a small panic attack like this:

"Oh NO! How am I going to fit all this in a 31' RV???? What about weight?? How will I stay under weight and have everyones stuff plus all the work stuff??? AHHHH! How will I get it all done? And do two shows, and take the trip to pick up the RV, and handle the daycare all at once and mow my lawn and get the house cleaned and the weeds pulled and everyone fed and ... and... and.... !$#&@>* !!!"

Yeah so I have to just focus on doing one thing at a time and hope I make it. So now I have to go do ten other things. Hey, thanks for reading!!

Holy Mounting STUFF Batman!!

Okay how am I ever going to fit all of this?? I have a mountian of STUFF that I have set aside to move into the RV... it keeps getting bigger. It doesn't even have my kitchen and bathroom stuff in it yet, not to mention the mountain of things for my JOB.... ahhhh!

How am I ever going to fit it all? And even if I do will I be wayyyy overweight?

The people who do this are hero's. You just have no idea. Until you try to do it, it seems simple, but it's NOT!

So I'm having some anxiety this morning... I have everyting ouside for the yard sale and my house is not empty. It seems to me it should be empty. Or nearly so. It's not even close. This is not good.'

On we go.

Batteries and Insurance

The dealership is replacing the battery for me with a new one... I asked if they would make that two six volts because they last better and get better amp hours according to the folks who seem to know.... They aren't sure they want to do that so we'll see I guess.

I have to say I'm a little shocked at the insurance premiums! I'm going to be paying over $1000/yr for our little class C. I thought it would be half that. Of course I'll just suck it up but sheeeesh! I shopped around a lot, that helped, it could be a lot more.

Yard sale tomorrow. I'm tired. My house looks like someone picked it up, shook it, and put it back!